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Hercules 3D Prophet II - Can't boot into Windows 98 with any Nvidia drivers?

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First post, by Zendani

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I'm at my wits end here. I can't get Windows 98 to boot at all after trying to install several different Nvidia drivers.

  • Biostar M6TBA Ver 1.3 (BIOS flashed to TBA1124B)
    Intel 440BX chipset
    Pentium II at 450MHz
    Hercules 3D Prophet II (GeForce2 MX)
    Matrox 30.7GB HDD
    SFR1M44-U100LQD Gotek 3.5inch USB 1.44M Floppy Emulator
    Windows 98 SE
    Dell E176FP LCD monitor
    Sound Blaster Live 5.1
    Tried drivers: 7.76, 12.41, 21.83, 45.23

I've tried:

  • Multiple clean Windows installations
    Installed both 3.20 and 3.40 Intel chipset drivers
    Moved Sound Blaster PCI card to bottom slots
    Removed all peripherals on boot (including the SB card at some points)

Once the computer reboots after installation of any of the Detonator drivers, it just hangs on the Windows 98 splash screen indefinitely. No blue screens. I can boot into Safe Mode and I can get the generic display driver to work. Once it gets those Nvidia drivers, nothing but the splash screen. I've tried multiple different BIOS settings. I'm thinking it might be some sort of IRQ conflict? Device Manager shows no conflicts though in safe mode. Maybe some sort of AGP/IRQ mismatch? Any help would be appreciated.

Reply 1 of 2, by Narokath

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Does the board work fine with other Nvidia cards? I ask because I've been dealing with an FIC board recently that just straight up hates ANY Nvidia card and behaves much the same way. Also went through all of the song and dance of trying endless combinations of chipset and Nvidia drivers, removing other cards, reinstalling Windows, changing BIOS settings and so on with zero success. It'll work fine with 3dfx, ATI and even the Kyro II that I have, but not Nvidia. Old PC parts just hate each other for no apparent reason sometimes.

Reply 2 of 2, by Kamerat

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Some motherboards of that era has an onboard voltage regulator for supply of 3,3 V to the AGP and DIMM slots. It looks like there's a regulator in front of the AGP slot of your board. The regulator might be too weak to supply a stable voltage to a GeForce2 MX.

Edit: The regulator, US1261, seems to supply 1,5 V and 2,5 V.

DESCRIPTION
The US1261 product using a proprietary process combines a dual low dropout regulators with fixed outputs of 1.5V and 2.5V in a single package with the 1.5V output having a minimum of 6A and the 2.5V having a 1A output current capability. This product is specifically designed to provide well regulated supplies from 3.3V to generate 1.5V for GTL+ termination resistor supply and 2.5V clock supply for the new generation of the Pentium II processor applications.

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
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